Medicaid expansion

You may have recently received several pieces in the mail paid for by the state Republican Party that criticize Democrat Brownie Futrell, who is challenging Republican Bill Cook in the District 1 Senate race. Those pieces include the statement: “But State Senate Candidate Brownie Futrell supports Hillary Clinton’s plan to give single, able-bodied young men who won’t work ‘free’ healthcare funded by taxpayers.” Next to those words is a footnote that cites “The Outer Banks Sentinel 12/16/2015” as the source for that assertion.

Expansion of Medicaid is one way we, as individuals and as a body politic, respect the sanctity of human life by making sure all God's children get the medical care they need. Appropriate medical care makes an individual stronger and in doing so, makes America stronger as a whole. Stronger, healthier people learn more, work harder, are better able to take care of their own children and lead more productive lives.

“[Federal officials] have been giving a lot of flexibility around a lot of aspects of Medicaid expansion waivers, but requiring job search is not allowed,” Silberman said. “The position is that Medicaid is a health insurance program, not a work program.”

Even so, the stipulation may be largely beside the point, according to recent numbers crunched by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The report found that almost two-thirds of the people who fall into the gap work already.

Once again, the facts run counter to the GOP's rhetoric and preconceived notions of how people become and stay poor. In the mind of somebody like McCrory, who hasn't done an honest day's work since he climbed down from the utility pole, a little bit of effort and voilà! You're safely ensconced in the middle class where people get all the shots they need to keep them healthy. He probably views forcing someone to search for a job as preventative medicine, approved by 4 out of 5 doctors.

Great article in this week's Indy by Jeffery Billman, called What's Driving the NC Senate's Animus Towards the State's Metros? BIllman explores possible reasons our state Senate Republicans dislikes our state's cities. I don't know about you, but I have never heard an urban politician campaign on hurting our urban environments, but to hear what is happening in NCGA, one would think there was a cabal of cities out to destroy the countryside. However, the greatest harm to our rural brethren has come from the Senate Republicans themselves. (I've put a link at the bottom of this piece. Read his article for more.)

When it comes to North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), few words have been written that are more damning than these...

The need to catch up with nearly two years worth of Medicaid expenses runs counter to the state Health and Human Services department’s narrative that it has cleaned up longstanding problems in Medicaid.

State Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Haywood, told about 175 people attending the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce's legislative luncheon on the Biltmore Estate that accepting federal funds to extend Medicaid coverage would increase jobs in the state and address the imbalance between what North Carolinians send to Washington and what they get back.

But state Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said he and his colleagues "are not here to chase the federal dollar, the federal money that's coming forward" as Medicaid is currently structured.

Those "federal dollars" are our dollars too, Cletus. Even the people who now fall into that "donut hole" that idiots like you helped to create with your stubborn refusal to cooperate paid Federal taxes, but thanks to ideologues in the Republican Party those folks (and a whole lot of others) are simply not being represented in their own state government. Hise is more interested in helping insurance companies than the people who desperately need health care:

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